Implications of the ageing population for the food demand chain in Germany
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
ISSN: 0959-0552
Article publication date: 22 January 2018
Issue publication date: 31 January 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to gain a general holistic view of implications of the growing and highly relevant customer segment of elder consumers for the food demand chain (food retail, production, logistics, and business informatics) in Germany.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper takes a holistic demand-chain approach that is based on interviews with 36 German food consumers aged 65-87 and with 50 experts from manufacturing, trade, logistics, and business informatics as well as a survey with 1,288 consumers above 64 years of age and 682 consumers below 65 years of age.
Findings
Physical, statistical, psychological, social, and behavioural characteristics of elder German consumers may influence location, services, and layout of food retail, food variety, sizes, packaging, and labelling, food production, transportation, and storage volumes and capacities, as well as facility location, route, and inventory planning. The social function of grocery shopping especially for single consumers, intergenerational products and services, home-delivery services especially to rural areas, as well as decentralisation and regionalisation are expected to gain importance. Logistics and industry 4.0 can facilitate the efficient and effective supply of food.
Originality/value
This research is the first to investigate the needs and wants of elder German food consumers and their implications for the German food demand chain in a more holistic demand-chain approach.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was partly supported by the “FH Struktur 2014” grant of the Ministerium für Innovation, Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen for the project “Auswirkungen des demografischen Wandels auf die Qualität der Lebensmittelversorgung” (Grant No. (FKZ): 13N11204).
Citation
Oeser, G., Aygün, T., Balan, C.-L., Corsten, T., Dechêne, C., Ibald, R., Paffrath, R. and Schuckel, M.T. (2018), "Implications of the ageing population for the food demand chain in Germany", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 46 No. 2, pp. 163-193. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-01-2017-0012
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited